“Evidence of Correlations between Human Partners Based on Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses of 22 Traits & UK Biobank Analysis of 133 Traits”, Tanya B. Horwitz, Jared V. Balbona, Katie N. Paulich, Matthew C. Keller2023-08-31 (IQ, politics, personality, sociology)⁠:

Positive correlations between mates can increase trait variation and prevalence, as well as bias estimates from genetically informed study designs. While past studies of similarity between human mating partners have largely found evidence of positive correlations, to our knowledge, no formal meta-analysis has examined human partner correlations across multiple categories of traits.

Thus, we conducted systematic reviews and random-effects meta-analyses of human male-female partner correlations across 22 traits commonly studied by psychologists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, epidemiologists and geneticists. Using Sciencedirect, PubMed and Google Scholar, we incorporated 480 partner correlations from 199 peer-reviewed studies of co-parents, engaged pairs, married pairs and/or co-habitating pairs that were published on or before 16 August 2022. We also calculated 133 trait correlations using up to 79,074 male-female couples in the UK Biobank (UKBB).

Estimates of the 22 mean meta-analysed correlations ranged from r_meta = 0.08 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.03–0.13) for extraversion to r_meta = 0.58 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.50–0.64) for political values, with funnel plots showing little evidence of publication bias across traits. The 133 UKBB correlations ranged from r_UKBB = −0.18 (adjusted 95% CI = −0.20, −0.16) for chronotype (being a ‘morning’ or ‘evening’ person) to r_UKBB = 0.87 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.86–0.87) for birth year.

Across analyses, political and religious attitudes, educational attainment and some substance use traits showed the highest correlations, while psychological (that is, psychiatric/personality) and anthropometric traits generally yielded lower but positive correlations. We observed high levels of between-sample heterogeneity for most meta-analysed traits, probably because of both systematic differences between samples and true differences in partner correlations across populations.

…Figure 1 displays the estimates of the mean meta-analysed correlations for all meta-analysed traits and, where applicable, the correlations for comparable traits in the UKBB (see ‘Partner correlations in the UKBB’), along with the adjusted CIs associated with each trait. The estimates of the mean correlations for the meta-analysed traits (r_meta) were greater than zero at the two-tailed, Bonferroni-corrected statistical-significance level for 18 traits, with the remaining 4 estimates being based on only 4 samples each. r_meta was greater than 0.35 for 9 attitudinal, academic and substance-related traits, ranging from r_meta = 0.38 for smoking initiation to r_meta = 0.58 for political values. It is important to note that despite being associated with relatively large point estimates, 3⁄7 substance use traits we meta-analysed did not achieve Bonferroni-corrected statistical-significance. Estimates of mean meta-analysed correlations for anthropometric traits and (non-substance related) disorder traits were all low to moderate (0.15 ≤ r_meta ≤ 0.24), although the estimate for generalized anxiety (r_meta = 0.17, p_adj > 0.999) was not statistically-significant. The 3 lowest estimates we found were for the Big Five personality traits extraversion (r_meta = 0.08), neuroticism (r_meta = 0.11) and agreeableness (r_meta = 0.11). Point estimates for conscientiousness (r_meta = 0.16) and openness to experience (r_meta = 0.21) were slightly higher (see Table 1 for Bonferroni-adjusted two-tailed p-values, Bonferroni-adjusted 95% CIs and total sample sizes associated with each meta-analysed trait).

See Also:

• Indirect assortative mating for human disease and longevity

• Genetic similarity between relatives provides evidence on the presence and history of assortative mating

• Cross-trait assortative mating is widespread and inflates genetic correlation estimates

• Assortative mating and the evolution of desirability covariation

• The Role of Active Assortment in Spousal Similarity

• Only the congruent survive—Personality similarities in couples

• Open SOEP: Spousal Similarity in Personality

• Attractive Women Want it All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment

• Seeing The Forest From The Trees: When Predicting The Behavior Or Status Of Groups, Correlate Means